How do you visualize the Honorverse?

Remember, this is about the VISUAL look you use when reading the books, and how you want the movie to look like--and hopefully the comic books. Evergreen obviously has their own idea, maybe we can steer them away from some bad ones. Take the infamous comic covers we've seen for example--is that you picture the Honorverse in your mind? Do you want the movie to look like that--lots of chrome and goofy outfits? Hey, about if Evergreen puts big engine bells and wings on te ships, make 'em look like the classic V2-style rocketship, and make the movie look like an old Flash Gordon movie, with the Havenites looking like Ming The Merciless? No?

As I said, my broader visual look is Tom Clancy techno-thriller, and specifically the movie of The Hunt For Red October (Red Storm Rising not being made into a movie alas). In my mind's eye, there's very little "sci-fi-ness", e.g. no goofy outfits, no winged ships, no Star Trek-style aliens, etc.. I picture the insides of the ships like today's nuclear submarines, the uniforms straight out the US Navy (except for the digi-camo Working Uniform, but that actually might be kinda cool for the Honorverse).

Now, I would accept other visual looks. Babylon 5 has been mentioned. That would be an exelllent example to follow, especially the humans' Earth Force ships and uniforms. Another series that would be good is the new Battlestar Galactica.

For something a bit "outside the box", and the one videogame style I'd use, would be the computer game Homeworld. It's visual look was directly inspired by the works of artist Peter Elson, which were prominently featured in Stewart Cowley's Terran Trade Auhtority books (you can add the works of Chris Foss too if you want). I'd think that'd be an awesome style to use--lots of brightly-colored ships and bold colorful space backgrounds--and a lot more visually appealing than boring old white ships in black space. Sometimes I find myself drifting to this look when reading the books.

Yes, it's been said that Honor is Hornblower in space, but do you actually picture the Honorverse as the early 1800's Napoleonic era? Do you want the movie looking like Amadeus? Probably not (an aside, David Drake's short "A Grand Tour" turned me off from his RCN series).

I had thought the question was about the design aesthetic of the Honorverse, which is why I answered as "technothriller"--for the most part, what we see in the books is on ships and we already know what the uniform aesthetic is in the series from the Jayne's/companion series--which is to say, skinsuits excepted, familiar to 21st-century eyes military uniforms. Insides of ships presumably still look like insides of ships. And on land, even with the antigrav and the hundreds of stories high buildings and domed stuff the Manticorans and the Graysons seem to be traditionalist decorators. (The Havenites appear to be fans of Brutalist architecture, but that could just be my misreading.) The aesthetic can't be retrofuture but it can't be super-gritty dystopia either. The characters in the Honorverse are too much just like now, only with better tech, to do something outrageous like that.

My mental image of Honorverse falls somewhere between Babylon 5 and Mass Effect. Mass Effect, despite its many faults, is actually good at displaying the tech imagery you'd expect from an universe like Honor's well. If Evergreen went for Mass Effect based designs modified for Honorverse physics I would be totally satisfied. I would rather prefer them to amy overly crowded and complicated design. For a society as comfortable with its tech as Honorverse, a design like B5 or what the comic book covers are offering now feels too ditry to me. It has been long enough for aesthetics to reenter the equation, and moreso, you don't put anything outside the armor unless you really have to, and the current designs don't look like they even have any armor at all!

Meril wrote:I had thought the question was about the design aesthetic of the Honorverse, which is why I answered as "technothriller"--for the most part, what we see in the books is on ships and we already know what the uniform aesthetic is in the series from the Jayne's/companion series--which is to say, skinsuits excepted, familiar to 21st-century eyes military uniforms. Insides of ships presumably still look like insides of ships. And on land, even with the antigrav and the hundreds of stories high buildings and domed stuff the Manticorans and the Graysons seem to be traditionalist decorators. (The Havenites appear to be fans of Brutalist architecture, but that could just be my misreading.) The aesthetic can't be retrofuture but it can't be super-gritty dystopia either. The characters in the Honorverse are too much just like now, only with better tech, to do something outrageous like that.

Meril, it's the design aesthetic that you personally use, so techno-thriller would work, and that is what I use, and whay I absolutely hate the comic covers that have been released/proposed. I actually consider the Honorverse novels (certainly all the pre-Mesa ones) to be far more military fiction than science fiction--call it "non sci-fi sci-fi" if that makes sense. Oddly enough, that's much of the appeal for me. I want the comics and movie to reflect that, they should look just like a contemporary military acttion thriller that just happens to be set in space in the future.

Now, having said that, there are times when certain Peter Elson images came to mind when reading the books (Stewart Cowley's TTA books were a huge influence on me).

For example, with appropriate modifications, this would be a great basis for an Honorverse ship.

Also this.

When the new LACs debuted in their first major mission, this image came to mind (one of my favorites).

And this would make a great starting point for a pinnance, again with appropriate modifications; it's also closer to what I had in mind than Bu9's jumbo-sized DC-9.

(Sorry for not in-line posting the images, but I got error messages saying that the dimensions could not be determined so they wouldn't post. Anyone know how to fix that?)

Hey, combine the Tom Clancy model with a Peter Elson/Chris Foss-style visual style, and that would be a hell of a movie.

Unfortunately I don't have stock imagery from the many authors, artists and games to apply to my imagination. So I simply look at the life I've experienced. When DW refers to ancient buildings on Manticore, I think of Biltmore Estate or Palace of Westminster (scaled down from ostentatiousness, not that I really think that of those wonderful examples of architecture). The modern buildings I just think of every nice elegant building, skyscraper or shopping mall and plug it in. For Grayson's historic sites I think of cities with castles and forts as I've seen and visited in Europe with an equivalent modern build up around them. Espeacially the small twisting streets where only horse and carriage could travel. Sphinx reminds me of my travels across the United States with lots of trees and small town atmosphere. Of course crown oaks i visualize as Sequoias that look like Oak trees with homes and shops nestled in its shade with lots of clearing underneath. With the description of fall having even the grass change to beautiful colors I felt like I was back in the Southern States again like it was my home too.

I've served on ships so I know what life is like with four metal walls to stare at for months on end. I also have a concept from the inside how warships function. My imagery of the ships is a lot less gimmicky than some artists because I know what LASERs. LIDAR, Phased Array RADAR, hanger bays, ships plumbing, electrical and electronic controls should look like. I just clean it up in my head for future modernization and then scale it up (in my mind RMN antiquated Frigates are about the size of a US carrier). The different ways ships mount these doesn't confuse me at all. I go from one ship to another, no matter its class and origin and still I know what I am looking at.

People from around the world, I have met a lot of people from around the world and let met tell you. No matter how different we are we are still people. That means every country has its rednecks. Don't tell me no. Because I know my kin. Italy is my favorite home away from home, its the deep south of Europe. Its laid back and the food. Oh Mama Mia I don't think we have changed all that much as a society over the thousands of years of human history, and it repeats so much. I think even in space you will still see the same. So I don't look far off for a human palette and technical reference to see what DW has written.

I think the idea of the Andermani have grown on me the most. German speaking Chinese Imperialists. Makes me want to watch every asian drama with German dubbing. Go on, picture it. Awesome.

So I believe if you use the basic descriptions given than even the narrowest viewpoint paints a great worldview, but i caution you, stray from it and I won't have the darndest clue that you are talking about HH.

The first thing that flashed into my mind is a cross between Tora Tora Tora and Babylon 5.